


Burn

by orphan_account



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: spoilers for 4x06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 21:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6924133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cosima, after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burn

“Delphine Cormier was shot dead at the DYAD parkade.”

 

Your heart pumps ice through your veins and you _break._

 

* * *

 

The headlights of the receding car bring you back up to the surface, back to the cold November air and the putrid smell of burning flesh and the _ache_ that is radiating from your chest; the pain of it pulsing through your body is worse than disease had ever been.

 

You spot your phone in front of you and you dive for it. You're shaking so badly that you have to grip it with both hands to keep from dropping it as you dial the familiar number.

 

“Cosima, thank Christ, what's happened?”

 

“Sarah,” you gasp, your voice high and cracked and laden with tears.

 

Your sister's voice shifts, becoming soft, bordering on maternal. The voice she only uses when she knows that she's handling someone who is wounded. “Whoa, hey, hey. Tell me what happened, yeah? What's going on?”

 

“Kendall's dead, Sarah, we're all dead, everything's gone. They killed Delphine, Sarah, _she's dead oh my god they shot her – ”_ You interrupt yourself with your own sobs, burying your face in one of your hands.

 

“Shit,” Sarah breathes.

 

You can't answer her, can't tell if she's talking to you or sharing the news with others in the room, can't understand the words she's saying. You can't even understand the thoughts running through your own mind. Nothing makes sense because _this can't be happening._

 

“Cosima. Hey, Cosima!”

 

“Y-yeah?” You croak.

 

“I asked where you are. We'll come and get you.”

 

You realize that you have no idea how to answer that.

 

“I, uh, I don't know. I don't know.”

 

Sarah becomes distant, addressing someone who isn't you. “Okay, Cos, Scott says to get into your phone's GPS and tell us where they took you. Can you do that?”

 

You nod, not even thinking about how Sarah can't see you. “Please don't hang up.”

 

“Course not. I'm not gonna leave you.”

 

You remember the last time someone promised you that, and you dissolve into tears all over again.

 

* * *

 

 

An hour later, Sarah leaps from the passenger's side of Siobhan's car, running toward you and wrapping you in her arms.

 

“It's going to be okay, you hear me? We're going to get through this. All of us.” She rubs her hands up and down your trembling arms, “You're bloody freezing, here,” she shrugs out of her leather jacket and you let her drape it around your shoulders, enveloping you in the smell of grit that is uniquely Sarah.

 

You spot Siobhan, standing near her car, watching the smoldering remains of the burned out van.

 

You're not the only one who lost someone tonight.

 

“C'mon, let's get you home, yeah?”

 

You allow yourself to be lead, away from the van, away from the darkness of the night that threatens to swallow you whole.

 

* * *

 

 

Sarah sits in the backseat with you, your head on her shoulder and her arm wrapped around yours. The city passes by in a blur, full of people who couldn't even comprehend the devastation that occurred in their own city tonight. The lives that were burned down, literally or figuratively.

 

“I imagine that they didn't go to all this trouble and then decide to just leave us with thousands of hours worth of irreplaceable research, did they?”

 

Sarah begins rubbing your shoulder, as if it would soften the blow. “Yeah, Scott called me. Some kind of virus from the Brightborn hard-drive, I dunno. I'm so sorry, Cos.”

 

You must be losing your mind, you think, because you can't help but burst out laughing. “They should have just put a bullet in my fucking brain and gotten it over with.”

 

“Hey, don't go there. We're going to fix this. We always do.”

 

And they call _you_ the naive one. “No, Sarah. Not this time.”

 

Your sister pulls you closer to her; you think that you can feel a tear drop hitting the top of your head.

 

* * *

 

 

“Here you go, chicken,” Siobhan says, slipping a pill into one of your hands and setting a glass of water on the table in front of you. You take it without even caring about what it is, swallowing it with a sip of water that your throat tightens up against and wants to reject. “It'll help you sleep,” Siobhan offers, “keep the dreams at bay.”

 

“Thanks,” you mutter without enthusiasm.

 

Siobhan squeezes one of your hands, picks up her car keys and heads for the door.

  
“Where are you going?” Sarah calls from the little kitchen of the safe house.

 

Hurt and disbelief cross over Siobhan's features, “To get my mum, Sarah.”

 

You can count on one hand the number of times you've seen Sarah embarrassed, but even from here, you can see her cheeks blush pink. “Oh, right. 'Course.”

 

The mother hen shakes her head, turning and disappearing out the door.

 

* * *

 

 

Sarah gives you something of hers to wear, and you welcome the opportunity to change out of your clothes that smell of smoke and death.

 

The sedative kicks in swiftly, and your sister has to support your uncoordinated and awkward stumbling as you make your way into the bedroom.

 

“Hey, monkey, Auntie Cosima is gonna have a little sleepover with us tonight. That alright?”

 

A sleepover, as if this was an ordinary girls' night and not the worst night of your life.

 

Sarah gets into bed with you and Kira, you sandwiched between the two of them. It might just be the drugs, but you feel safe for the first time since you offered to go to Brightborn in Alison's place.

 

Sarah tucks one of your dreadlocks back, out of your face. “How're you doing?”

 

Your voice, heavy and deep, “I loved her, Sarah.”

 

“I know you did,” she glances over at Kira, and her voice drops down to a whisper, “And that's why when we find the psycho who did this, I'm making sure you get to be the one who blows the bastard's head off.”

 

You nod as you drift off into sleep.

  
You're going to die, you know this with certainty, but you won't let yourself fall to your disease until Sarah's made good on her promise.

 

 

 

 


End file.
